ETCC R4: Germany and Bulgaria triumph, Germany leads

11/6/2011 – Normally we are scheduled to cover the European Team Championship after every second round. But round four was so interesting that we are slipping it in. The sensations: Russia was soundly defeated by Bulgaria 3-1, and even more sensationally: Germany beat Ukraine 3½-½ to take the overall lead in the event. We bring you the most interesting games in our round four extra report.

3rd – 11th November in Halkidiki, Greece

The ETCC is a nine-round Swiss, with one open section and one section for the
women’s teams. The time control is 90 min for 40 moves + 30 min for the
rest of the game + 30 sec increment for every move played starting from the
first move. The member countries of the European Chess Union (ECU) have the
right to enter one team of four players plus one reserve in the open competition,
and one team of four female players and one reserve in the women’s competition.
There are 38 teams in the former and 28 in the latter. The games are being played
in the Olympic Hall Congress Center (1500 sq.m.), within the five-star Porto
Carras Grand Resort, which is located in an enchantingly verdant landscape in
Halkidiki, Greece.

Full results

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Click on "Women section" to get their results

Bulgaria vs Russia

In an Anti-Marshall Veselin Topalov played a novelts on move 13 and went on
to get a slightly inferior position at move 28. But then Peter Svidler went
astray, probably missing a knight move, and Topalov had a comfortable position.
At some stage, seeing that his colleagues were winning in two games, he considered
repeating moves, but then went on applying pressure and eventually won the rook
ending – although he admitted that Svidler had missed some drawing chances.

Indian TV journalist Vijay Kumar who is recording the video interviews

Ukraine vs Germany

The Ukrainians decided to rest their top player, Vassily Ivanchuk, against
the "weak" German team – as it turned out a decision that "backfired
horribly as the Ukrainian team was demolished by 0.5-3.5" (tournament bulletin).
German GM Arkadij Naiditsch played a Sicilian Najdorf against former FIDE world
champion Ruslan Ponomariov, winning in 55 moves; Georg Meier used a backrank
weakness of Pavel Eljanov to secure the full point in 36 moves; and Jan Gustafsson
ruthlessly punished an error by Zahar Efimenko on move 25. Only Alexander Moiseenko
was able to secure half a point against Daniel Fridman.

In round five Germany plays Bulgaria, and Russia faces Ukraine. Should be very
interesting...

Women's section

Here Russia continuted their triumphal march wint a 2½-1½ win
over Ukrain, scored in spite of a loss by Nadezhda Kosintseva against her GM
colleague Kateryna Lahno. Georgia beat Armenia 3-1 to take second place, previously
occupied by Ukraine.

See also

9/26/2017 – The final classical game. The finals has been relatively sedate with three draws until now. But it could all end today with one decisive game. Ding Liren has the black pieces today. It's going to be an exciting game. Games kick off at 13:00 CEST (7:00 AM EST) with live commentary from Tbilisi by GMs Evgeny Miroshnichenko and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and live updates by our reporters Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal.

See also

7/5/2017 – This is neither prank nor clever wording: Garry Kasparov will be playing in the official St. Louis leg of the Grand Chess Tour from August 14-19, 2017. Please note that this is the Rapid and Blitz competition, just as the ones held in Paris and Levuen these last weeks, and not the classical events. However, this is not an exhibition event, and will determine the official Grand Chess Tour rankings as well as FIDE ratings of the players. Here is the press release.

Video

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